Comments by "Martin Maat" (@MartinMaat) on "Louis Rossmann" channel.

VanMoof already went belly up last week. It was all over the news here in The Netherlands. Bikes are offered on marktplaats (our e-Bay equivalent) for scraps because no one can service them and the official VanMoof stores were closed because angry customers were lining up there to complain. Let's hope this debacle will be a lesson to everyone.
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@taylorhutcherson100 O they are very much part of the conversation. No viewers, no views. How's that for entitlement? It's not like we don't have options. TV still works, there's streaming services. And the weather looks pretty nice.
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@LatvianVideo I was thinking the same but even this may not be easy. On their website they recently announced their partnership with KwitFit. They would train the mechanics, and (wait for it) provide them with "special tools needed to do maintenance on their bikes". That sounds to me like locked-in maintenance was their primary business model. I wonder whether you can even access the motor to hookup a modular battery. I suspect nothing is standard or commodity on those things. You may be better off just using the motor on another bike and you may well have to destroy the VanMoof to get it out. But I am just speculating now.
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It is a balancing act for them. They have to keep viewers, advertisers AND content creators happy. I recognize this is not easy. They deal with conflicting interests and pissing off either group will hurt revenue.
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@squidcaps4308 I never heard of the brand or had seen the bike before I heard about the problems they had (both quality-wise and financially). And indeed, the first thing I noticed was how bare it is. It doesn't even have a luggage carrier. You cannot take a passenger or any shopping in a practical way. It boggles the mind. I am well over 50, my parents never had a car, we did everything by bike. A bike this expensive just being suitable for leisure trips is just inconceivable. It looks pretty sturdy yet you can't fit anything on it, wtf.
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@Ozymandias1 Indeed. I do not expect them to make many parts themselves. Once the word is out you filed for bankrubtcy protection (uitstel van betaling = you get more time to pay your debts), suppliers will demand you pay in advance or first pay your outstanding debts before they will send you any (more) goods, which you can't do because you're out of money, which totally explains the lack of parts KwikFit is reporting. And the closed stores. So I don't think it is much of a stretch to say they went bankrupt. It is still not unthinkable that some existing company, like for instance KwikFit, may say "we're not interested in picking up production and selling bikes but we want to buy the rights to the brand and the components so we can service the bikes that are out there.". But I figure that would have to be real cheap because it won't last. It will probably not be worth the effort.
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I watch a lot of YouTube and really appreciate the content and what I get out of it. I became a Premium member for 12 Euros a month when the ads became unbearable. So for me it worked, they pestered me into payment and although initially I thought it was a lot I am fairly pleased with the deal. In-video ads don't bother me that much because they help the creator, they're not just scams and I can skip them. I feel it would help YouTube if they had more steps. Like a 4 Euros membership that makes the experience less painful without the extra perks.
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Well... maybe... they (YouTube) found that users were turning their backs on YouTube altogether because the ads got too numerous, frequent and intrusive and this is their response. Which sounds pretty good to me as a user. Just over half a year ago I was fed up and chose to start paying for Premium because I am a heavy user, I value the content and I can afford it. Had there not been this option I would not be here. I suspect lots of other people chose the other route and found other ways to waste their time.
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@kanrakucheese Fatal, really? Anyway, not every frenchman is wearing a beret and carrying a baguette under his arm. France had a lot of colonies in Africa which gained them a lot of French people who do not look French to you. They are nonetheless second or third generation frenchmen.
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@weird-guy Their website suggests the bikes were manufactured in Taiwan. I read up on them a bit, it looks like they were run by a couple of megalomaniacal swindlers. In 2021 they were already losing 70 million Euros. The tone in their own blog posts is of a chilling grandiosity. So none of this should come as a surprise. But who looks up annual reports when shopping for a bike? It is sad though, the product is just what we need to declutter cities and get rid of the obscenity of cars everywhere. Apparently it takes idiots and gullible early adopters to get these trends started. If it weren't for them, nothing would ever happen. I guess we should be grateful. They're examples, albeit of how not to do it, but they also show that it's possible and raise awareness among the masses.
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@RealButcher Sure. If you can get one and you have the right tools. Which you can't and you don't. I am watching TV now, it's official: bankruptcy is definitive.
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They probably never watched any of your videos, they just asked Google for tech channels with over 1M subscribers and mail merged the lot that email.
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@squidcaps4308 They have different models. I may have to teach you a little bike history :-). VanMoof is a Dutch brand. Traditionally, bicycles in The Netherlands are made in two varieties: those with a high horizontal bar and those with double 45 degree angle bars going from the steering wheel down to the cranks (later as production methods got better the bars became curved). The latter type allows you to "step in", the first type you need to swing your leg over to get on. "Why these two types?" you ask. Well, the first type is the simple, stiff and strong design meant for men. But it is not very lady-like to swing your leg over the saddle when wearing a skirt so a second design was introduced for women. This convention was maintained long after girls stopped wearing skirts: as a boy you got the type 1 and as a girl you got the type 2. Manufacturers made frames in different sizes, just like clothes.
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@OGruurd Google translate? Alcohol? Ahh.. Dialect! Indeed, my generation regards electric bikes as strictly for old people. Today's youth however, they have no pride. Pussies.
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@vincei4252 What tricked your excuse for a brain into believing I claim YouTube is succeeding in keeping content creators happy?
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This was obviously done to optimize the use experience. To keep you safe. To protect your privacy. To make the machine secure, to make sure it cannot be tampered with, to prevent unauthorized usage. Scanning without ink would be a result of reverse engineering which is specifically prohibited by the EULA. HP takes customer care very seriously. Was this helpful? Yes / No
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How is this different from cars requiring license plates? Drones are new, nice there haven't been any major accidents yet. As more people start using one and one goes through my window by accident it would be nice to know where it came from. Privacy? Everyone is carrying a phone, the government already knows where you've been, they can demand data from service providers at any time. This is nothing if you are fine with the patriot act. The fact that bank robbers will use false license plates or stolen cars does not make license plates useless.
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Autism, possibly. However the core issue here sounds more like paranoia.
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 @cebruthius I too picked up a manipulative narcissistic vibe. The apologists are called flying monkeys by the way.
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It's not service alright. It's flexible features that can be turned on and off remotely. As long as I know how this works and what it will cost I don't have a real problem with it. I would not feel comfortable with paying anything but a one time amount for activating it but basically there would not be a difference with having something installed after market. The technical implementation would not be my concern. This did make me think about what CPU manufacturers do. They also tend to make one chip with all the features and then disable some cores or extra memory and sell them for less so they can cater to a wide range of the market, price-wise. I haven't heard of this being done any other way but permanently, by physically destroying some paths. Wouldn't it be nice to allow me to buy a cheap processor and then enable me to pay extra later to enable additional features?
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Yes let's face it folks. Apple is way smarter than us, they know what we want. Resistance is futile.
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I just wonder how long this will last. My experiences are bad as well, I typically send back half of the stuff I order because there is something wrong with it. I have had stuff not arrive at all or way too late as well. But they make it real easy and free to return and I never had any pushback, refunds are smooth. Which is why I still ocaisionally order. And it is typically high risk products I go for, stuff not offered anywhere else. Comodity products I buy somewhere else for just a little more if only because delivery will be more reliable. Someone must be taking a hit on this practice.
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From their perspective the deal is: you watch ads, we provide you with resources. When they find you are not watching ads, they will figure it is not worth spending resources on you. And they probably want you to leave.
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@GregorianMG They weren't making any money off those million people anyway, were they? They just cost them so they still win.
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@GregorianMG You (as a product) are an ad **target**. If they can't target you with ads, they have nothing (to make money on). Then you're just a record in a database with everything there is to know about you waiting for the government to confiscate. Which may be sooner rather than later if you look at the polls but either way they are not likely to make any money over it.
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@kanrakucheese Well, what do you mean then? And what is French culture? Yes, being rude so what's your argument?
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@kanrakucheese Do you even know where France is on the map? "Those turning France", would that be rioters or government to you? Macron does not identify himself has religious. Do people burning cars come across as religious to you?
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I had a Samsung Note II for 12 years. I had to replace the (easily replaceable) battery several times. If it would not have developed stability issues that went worse in time I probably would still be using it. I went through the very thought process outlined here when shopping for a new phone. There just weren't any sensible choices with replaceable batteries anymore. I would have bought a more expensive top of the line phone if it had a replaceable battery. Spending around 1000 Euros for something that would likely fade away on me in a couple of years was too big a hurdle for me though. I finally bought an A71 for just over 300 Euros and I have to say I'm pretty pleased with it. After 3 years the integrated battery is holding up pretty well. The most annoying thing so far is Samsung ordering me to subscribe to new terms they introduced long after I bought the thing. I decline each time of course, hoping at some point they will say "Alright, we have been very patient, we will now remove all Samsung software from you phone!" I know this is not going to happen but a guy can dream.
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Replaceable is not good enough. We need standardized batteries. Like AA, AAA but for phones. How hard is that? The sheer diversity will still drive up prices and they will figure out a way to tie you to "original" parts using some "security" feature.
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There must be a better place for that couch.
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